This sale had all of the above, including a stone from Mt. Everest Base Camp that related to the late Sir Edmund Hillary and the 50th anniversary of the conquest of Mt Everest. Although this rather oblique curiosity failed to sell on the night, auctioneer Richard Thomson was quietly confident of it selling in post-auction negotiations. A rare photograph (Lot 15 ) of Sir Ed in his beekeeping attire, complete with smoker in hand sold well at $1,000. While Small Hillary Icon (Lot 16 ) by Nigel Brown again of Sir Ed in his iconic red check shirt produced after Nigel Browns Antarctic Residency late last century sold well achieving $7,500.
Don Binney's ever popular commercially produced silkscreen print from back in the 1980's (Lot 18 ) sold very well for $9,900.
Top price for this compact sale, featuring a smorgasbord of figurative and non-figurative iconography went to a 1971 oil on canvas board by Leo Bensemann entitled After Rain Takaha (Lot 68 ) selling for $17,250.
A very sensitive charcoal drawing of a young Maori boy (Lot 77 ) by Peter McIntyre went over the top end of the $4,000-$6,000 estimate selling well for $7,800.
In the non figuritive area, a Roy Good Golden Mean painting from Diamond series (Lot 39 ) on jute from 1982 sold for an artist's record price of $9,000 while a tough typical Max Gimblett large format loaded brush painting entitled Portrait (Lot 37 ) failed to sell despite it gracing the back cover of the catalogue. Mervyn Williams all over blue painting, Falling Four (Lot 41 ) achieved $6,000.
The one international work to feature in the sale was a Pablo Picasso 24 colour lithograph entitled La Picador ll, (Lot 35 ) although only dated on the plate it sold just above the top estimate for $7,500.
A brace of paintings painted in that 19th century manner by Tim Wilson of Lake Te Anau N. Z. (Lot 91 ) (Lot 92 ) and created especially for the visitor industry both sold for $13,000 each.
In all, across the board, a series of good results were achieved with over $350,000 worth of Modern and Contemporary Art changing hands on the night.
All prices shown are hammer prices in $NZ.
